conversations with a 3 year-old

When I lived in New York City and would see crazy--and I mean crazy in an endearing, not threatening, way--people on the subway or walking down the street cursing to themselves, I would sometimes (sometimes) think that it might be nice to be crazy. I'm not talking crazy like storming into your former place of employment with a loaded firearm or thinking little people live inside your head, but crazy like talking nonsense. You could say the most outlandish things and no one would bat an eyelash--at least not in New York City.

Having a conversation tonight with Catcher reminded me of that sentiment. He's at the age--turning three in July--where he knows enough to speak in complete sentences and reference things from earlier conversations and memories, but sometimes you just have to wonder what is going on in that little head. Here's a snippet of our conversation:

C: Daddy's not at the hairport.

M: Yes he is.

C: No. Daddy told me he's going to Or-in-na.

M: California?

C: Yeah.

M: Well. He has to go to the airport to get on airplane to take him to California.

C: Coco and Moppy went to the hairport and Coco and Moppy got on a hairplane.

M: Oh yeah? Where are they going?

C: Mexico.

M: Cool. What are they going to do in Mexico?

C: Wear bathing suits.

M: Good idea. What do their bathing suits look like?

C: They have sharks!

M: Sharks?! Wow. Anything else?

C: Sharks. And robots. And cheese!

M: Cheese. That must be something else.

It should be noted that following this conversation, Catcher proceeded to the bathroom where I heard him telling himself there would be no gummies because his Pull-up was wet. He then began singing "Wheels on the Bus" and came back out to the living room with his pants down around his ankles to ask me, "Hey. Hey. Hey, Mommy. What comes after the horn?" Now tell me that's not crazy.

pack rat

Remember my closet? I just wanted to remind you how small it is and how little room there is in it. Keep this picture in mind while you read the rest of this post. Pardon me while I back up for a second...

Alex and I have this fancy event to go to on Wednesday, and I needed to find shoes to wear. When I say "find," I don't mean that I had to go out shopping for a new pair. I mean that I had to send Alex up to the attic in search of a box that may or may not contain the one pair of shoes that I want to wear. So Alex disappeared for a few minutes and came back down with the box pictured above.

Inside I found some old friends that I haven't seen in quite a while. Hello little silver, "Dancing with the Stars" shoes. I remember I wore you to a wedding in 2008, and I haven't seen you since. (These weren't the shoes I was looking for, by the way, but it was nice to welcome them back to the main level). Wait. Where was I? It's very easy to get sidetracked when you come across shoes that you miss that you didn't know you were missing (or not missing, phew!).

While I was digging through the attic box, I decided it would be a good time to go ahead and clear my closet floor and swap out the shoes I've been wearing for the past six months for some that I haven't seen in a while. Kind of like rotating your tires or a mattress or something. Pictured above is what I had strategically stacked on my closet floor.

Psyche! This is what I really had on the floor of that tiny closet--all of it! So in the middle of yet another manic cleaning spree, I put half of this--including my beloved purple shoes that I wear at least once a week--up in the attic and only kept three extra pairs of shoes from the box that Alex had brought down. The shoes I wanted for the event on Wednesday were in that box, but seeing the little silver guys reminded me of a pair of navy shoes...and some electric blue shoes...and some pink pumps (do I still have those?) that are all up in the attic somewhere. Looking through the box was kind of like Christmas, but more of a depressing Christmas where you unwrap all your presents and then have to give them back.

put me in the movies

...or take me out of the movies and sell me for cheap. What?! I'm talking about Film Biz Prop Shop, a not-for-profit establishment in New York City that takes donations from TV shows, film sets, Broadway shows and other commercial productions and then sells them to us for super-cheap (otherwise the stuff would end up in a landfill...ridiculous!). I just learned about this store so I haven't been; however, I'm eagerly awaiting its virtual debut (and let's be honest, I probably wouldn't venture out to Brooklyn to see the store in person anyway).

Until the site launches, I'm thinking of my favorite movie sets and dreaming about what I could do with all that Josef Frank fabric from Mama Mia!, for example. Do you think they have the Womb Chair that was used in one episode of Felicity? Or maybe Pat the Dog from Friends?

and...scene

This past Sunday we had our last shoot with HGTV. Wait. Back it up: on Sunday I thought it was our last shoot, but there may be more in the works...we won't get into that now. So back to Sunday when I thought it was our last shoot, I had a momentary lapse of reason and thought I would actually miss the cameras. When you're in the middle of a 12-hour shoot and the kids are beyond the breaking point of sanity, you wonder why you got yourself into this in the first place (oh yeah...I was home on maternity leave and bored out of my mind and sleep deprived and desperate to sell my house and thought it was a great idea). But then there are things that you really will miss--like hanging out with the crew, a hot battery pack on the small of your back, the feeling of being miked up hours after the day has ended and the lingering flow of conversation that is not-quite-normal between you and your spouse. Yeah, I think I will miss it. But I'm not sure the whole family is on board with my sentiments. 

Judging by his expression, Catcher won't miss the cameras following us around; he's been there and done that and is jaded by the whole reality TV thing at this point.

Scout, on the other hand, was more or less asleep during the first few months of filming, so she's still new to the TV world and was all smiles on Sunday. Or maybe the big light just put her in a trance.

i did it!

I love to paint and repurpose old furniture, but I've never been the crafty Martha Stewart type who can make a garden grow or create innovative place settings for dinner parties. That's why I was particularly pleased with myself when I came up with this little DIY centerpiece for our showings this past Saturday. The empty dining room table was looking a little sad, and I'm not the type to set a table for "staging" purposes, so I had to come up with something. My little one-trick pony is buying a bunch of tulips in the same color and arranging them tightly in a short vase, but I forgot to get flowers at the Trader Joe's that morning, so I had to work with what I had. And what I had were a few colorful glass tumblers (courtesy of Calypso for Target) and an herb garden (courtesy of my mom). I snipped a little cilantro, a little rosemary and a little unidentified purple blossom thing, and voila! Instant centerpiece.

But my creativity didn't stop there...I put some rosemary by the kitchen sink for a touch--notice I avoided the word pop--of color, and then because I was so pleased with myself and on a roll, I moved the bamboo into the bathroom to create a little zen-like vibe in there.

These are all tricks that the realtors would have you believe will sell a house in an instant, but our feedback from Saturday (once again) was "no comment." But I can't complain (yet) because at least people are looking at the place. I'm just wondering how many "no comments" it takes to get an offer. Anyone?

Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you the best part of my herb geniusness. Tonight when I was making dinner (and by making, I mean heating up a bag of frozen pasta in a skillet) I reached behind me and tossed in a few sprigs of fresh rosemary. I like that word "sprigs." Let's take one last look at my genius work...

homeless?

Does this car look like it belongs to a homeless person? I kind of wish it did belong to a homeless person, in a way, because that would mean that we've sold our house. But this isn't the car of a homeless person. This is a car of a family that is trying to sell its house and has a showing at 10:30am on a Saturday like we did last weekend. Believe it or not, sandwiched between all the bags and boxes and stroller and Lord knows what else, are two kids and two parents out for a Saturday drive. You've already heard the feedback ("no comment") from this one, but I thought this picture accurately describes the life you live when you're trying to sell a house. Speak of the devil...we just got a call for two showings tomorrow afternoon. At least they gave us some notice this time.

The two bags of chips in the forefront of this picture, by the way, are in no way representative of our grocery shopping habits. Not pictured is a bottle of vodka, which more accurately describes our grocery shopping habits [wink!].

dipped in color

Pinterest

The other day I received a catalog from Serena & Lily in the mail, and my eye was immediately drawn to a sheer, white curtain that had been dip-dyed a shocking hot pink. Of course it was the only thing I really liked in the catalog, and of course it wasn't for sale. I find myself doing that a lot--loving the props the set stylist used for a catalog photo shoot and then discovering that they're only props. Once I find out that the something I love isn't immediately for sale it makes me want it even more (of course!), so now I'm obsessed with finding hot pink ombre curtains. I haven't found exactly what I'm looking for--to decorate a room that I don't even have, by the way--but there are a couple contenders...and a lot of websites offering "do-it-yourself" tips on dip dying (no thank you).

Anthropologie

Urban Outfitters